You are here: CCOHS ANNUAL REPORT

CCOHS ANNUAL REPORT

April 1st, 2015 to March 31st, 2016

Informing

Innovating

Inspiring

to create positive workplace change

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) is Canada’s national resource for
the advancement of workplace health and safety. CCOHS promotes the total well-being – physical,
psychosocial, and mental health – of working people in Canada. We do this by providing information,
education, tools, and solutions that encourage attitudes and methods that will lead to improved worker
physical and mental health, and prevention of work-related injury and illness.

Established in 1978, CCOHS is a federal departmental corporation reporting to the Parliament of
Canada through the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, and is governed
by a Council of Governors representing governments (federal, provincial and territorial),
employers, and workers; a structure that ensures an impartial approach.

Council of Governors

Executive Board

Acting PCEO (Chair)

Leslie Galway

Shelley Rowan

Phil Germain

Andrea Nalyzyty

Andrea Peart

Audit/Risk Committee

Leslie Galway (Chair)

Andrea Nalyzyty

Troy Winters

Kimberly Henney

Alternates

Helder Botelho

Andrea Peart

Shelley Dauphinee

Ross Nairne

Governance Committee

Phil Germain (Acting Chair)

John Beckett

Sari Sairanen

Ross Nairne

Alternates

Helder Botelho

Troy Winters

Shelly Dauphinee

Human Resources Committee

Shelley Rowan (Chair)

Helder Botelho

Andrea Peart

Diana Miles

Alternates

John Beckett

Sari Sairanen

Kimberley Henney

Chair

[position vacant]

Employer

John BeckettFederally Regulated Employers

Helder BotelhoCanadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME)

Andrea NalyzytyCanadian Bankers Association

Marcel PouliotTransportation Association of Canada

Labour

Sari SairanenUnifor

Andrea PeartCanadian Labour Congress (CLC)

Troy WintersCanadian Union of Public Employees

Provincial and Territorial

Diana MilesBritish Columbia

Ross NairneAlberta

Phillip GermainSaskatchewan

Shelley RowanNova Scotia

Leslie GalwayNewfoundland and Labrador

Kimberley HenneyYukon

*Shelly DauphineeNew Brunswick

*Sophie DennisOntario

*David GrundyNorthwest Territories

*Term expired

Message from the President and Council of Governors

We are pleased that in 2015/16 CCOHS put more
information, services, products into the hands of
Canadians (and others) than ever before. Our efforts
to provide solutions in high risk sectors forged new
relationships in the construction and transportation
sectors expanding the reach and impact of CCOHS
products and services. We also worked with partners such
as WorkSafeNB to create apps that put information that
people need at their fingertips, and are partnering with
a number of other provinces and territories to provide
innovative health and safety solutions.

CCOHS continued to respond to current workplace
issues providing tools, information, and support to
address mental health and workplace wellness, promoting
anti-stigma messages and helping prepare workplaces
for the changes to the Workplace Hazardous Materials
Information System (WHMIS).

For the second year, CCOHS sponsored the national Focus
on Safety video contest, and vigorously promoted the
viewing of the submissions to raise awareness of health
and safety in workplaces and among youth in Canada.

We were pleased to continue our tradition of fostering
interest in the field of occupational health and safety
through the Dick Martin Scholarship Awards. Last year,
we awarded a $3,000 scholarship to each Kari Bergerud of
Grant MacEwan University (Alberta) and Harry Wiseman of
Keyin College (Newfoundland).

Of particular note this past year was the CCOHS national
tripartite Forum 2016: The Changing World of Work,
which took place in Vancouver, British Columbia. The
event provided a unique platform for discussion amongst
employers, workers, and governments from across Canada
to exchange ideas and perspectives around current health
and safety issues they identified, such as mental health,
violence, harassment, and training and education around
safe work.

This was a year of leadership transition for CCOHS. We
would like to thank outgoing president Steve Horvath for
his leadership and contributions to the Centre during his
five-year term. We would also like to thank Kin Choi for
his leadership and service as chairperson of the Council.
Both made lasting impacts to the Centre and we wish them
well.

During the year we also welcomed new members to the
Council, Ross Nairne, (Alberta), Troy Winters (CUPE), and
Marcel Pouliot (Canadian Transportation Association). We
have been working closely with them and the rest of the
Council to deliver value for, and meet the changing needs
of, all of our stakeholders.

Finally, we would like to extend thanks to the CCOHS
employees for their efforts, passion, and focus in
delivering results that help create safer workplaces and
improve the lives of workers in Canada.

Shelley Rowan, on behalf of the Council of Governors

Gareth Jones, Acting President

CCOHS by the Numbers

#Trending

GHS/WHMIS 2015

In February 2015, Canada aligned the
Workplace Hazardous Materials Information
System (WHMIS) with the Globally
Harmonized System of Classification and
Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), also known
as WHMIS 2015. While Canada began its
journey of embracing the changes, CCOHS
was ready to help workers, employers and
suppliers navigate the complexities of adopting
the new rules. From a Canada-wide portal and
online courses, to speaking engagements and
hosting workshops across the country, CCOHS
worked to educate workers about, and prepare
workplaces in Canada, for WHMIS 2015.

Workplace Mental Health

"21.4% of the working
population in Canada currently
experience mental health
problems and illnesses.*"

Depression, stress and other mental health
issues have emerged as leading health issues in
Canada, and the linkage between stress, mental
health and absence still remains a significant
challenge amongst people in this country.
CCOHS has worked to stay ahead of this current
issue, continuing its work with the Mental Health
Commission of Canada’s case study research
projects – and using the experience to provide
reliable and credible mental health information
and resources to workers and employers in
Canada. This year, CCOHS launched a new and
improved Healthy Minds at Work microsite to
help organizations work their way towards a
psychologically safe and healthy workplace.

* Mental Health Commission of Canada (2013). Making the
Case for Investing in Mental Health.

New, Young and Aging Workers

New workers aren’t just young people or those
who are entering the work force for the first time;
they include people who are re-entering the
workforce or are starting a second or even third
career. Regardless of age or stage, new is new
– and these workers are especially vulnerable,
with 5 to 7 times the risk of injury in the first
month of their job. And with 20% of Canada’s
workforce (3.6 million) aged 55 years and over
(StatsCan, 2015), employers are faced with new
challenges in how to leverage the experience
of the older workers while ensuring their needs
are met to work safely and stay healthy. CCOHS
created webinars, articles, social media events
and infographics to help shed some light on, and
offer solutions, to address the challenges faced
by the employers of - as well as - new, young,
and aging workers in Canada.

Serving Canada to Improve the Lives of Workers

Lives matter. Work can be hazardous and some jobs come with higher risks than others.
At CCOHS, we believe in the Internal Responsibility System in which everyone - both
employees and employers - have a role to play in safe work. An important part of
CCOHS’ mandate is to serve the working population in Canada to prevent work-related
illness and injury. Workers and employers alike need access to credible information,
the tools and resources they need to work safely, and to create workplaces
in which the health, safety and well-being of employees are paramount.
The Centre does this by making a wide range of useful resources and services,
in a variety of formats, freely available, in English and French, for all to use.

Answering Questions

Navigating health and safety laws, workplace policies and workplace hazards can be challenging. People have questions and
they turn to CCOHS for answers they can trust.

With a self-serve option through the OSH Answers Fact Sheets and a person-to-person Safety InfoLine service, CCOHS tries
to makes it as easy as possible for people to access the information and answers they need. More than ever there is a growing
trend of users “self-serving”, as the number of users of the online fact sheets increase.

OSH Answers Fact Sheets

Available through the CCOHS website, OSH Answers
Fact Sheets contain thousands of questions and answers
on more than 500 topics - from workplace stress, to
ergonomics, to seasonal safety tips. These online fact
sheets were created for workers in Canada to have
instant access to reliable and relevant health and safety
information, anytime. New topics are continually added
and existing topics are regularly revised for relevancy and
currency. The fact sheets are widely repurposed by media
and organizations alike and form the foundation of many of
the Centre’s informational products, such as publications,
posters and articles. They are one of CCOHS’ most popular
public services garnering more than 12 million page views
– 21% of those being in Canada.

Although Canada adopted WHMIS 2015 in February 2015,
not every jurisdiction across Canada was ready to adopt
the new changes. The Workplace Hazardous Materials
Bureau of Health Canada (formerly the National Office of
WHMIS) rolled out a multi-year transition plan to prepare
manufacturers, importers, distributors, and employers
for the changes, and CCOHS was ready with resources
to help. CCOHS’ WHMIS 2015 Fact Sheets were born in
early 2015 and have continued to be a popular resource
amongst users in Canada. WHMIS 2015 continues to be
a topic of concern for Canadian workplaces, and CCOHS
plans to add to the collection in the coming year, with the
confidential business information fact sheet currently in
development.

Safety InfoLine

For workers and workplaces in Canada who require a
higher level of support, CCOHS provides a confidential,
free person-to-person information service. Safety InfoLine
is accessible by telephone and online, and a team of
health and safety specialists responds to the incoming
requests. The team researches and provides information
on workplace health and safety to help users of the
service make informed decisions about specific issues
in the workplace. On topics from safety and ergonomics,
to chemical hazards and psychosocial issues, Safety
InfoLine responded to 7,513 inquiries from every province
and territory this year. Employers made up the bulk of
the users (41%), followed by labour (34%), the general
public (23%), and governments (2%).

Users by Province

Users by Group

As part of CCOHS’ effort to continuously improve, Safety
InfoLine users are surveyed on the usefulness and quality
of the service. Results of this year’s survey remained
strong with 87% satisfied or very satisfied with the
information they received. More importantly, 63% (up
from 59%) said that their use of CCOHS information will
lead to current or future changes to the workplace that may
result in improved health and safety performance.

"It is a comfort to know that a
helping hand is readily available
from the experts in areas that are often
a part of our world but mostly out of our
scope of practice."

"An excellent example of
government resources used wisely
to assist progress and understanding
of hazards of chemicals in the
workplace."

Providing Access to Information

CCOHS has a commitment to provide people in Canada with bilingual, credible and useful health and safety information in
accessible and user friendly formats.

CCOHS Website

Constantly evolving to meet the needs of users, the
CCOHS website (ccohs-cchst.ca) continues to be a
growing powerhouse of workplace health and safety
information and services. This year, overall traffic to the
CCOHS website was heavier than ever with substantial
growth in usage. The web sessions were up 25% to 10.6
million and the page views of content were up 31% to 17.3
million. Canadian usage of the site was up 43% over the previous year, with a third of the web sessions originating
from Canada. The wonderful thing about the Internet, is
that CCOHS can serve and help the rest of the world as
well: 25% of visitors to the website came from the United
States of America, and 42% were from other countries.
Also, 16% of the web sessions were on the French
language site.

Topic-specific Microsites

In addition to the CCOHS website, the Centre has a collection of topic-specific microsites which provide a single point of
access, in English and French, to some of the best information, tools and research from Canada and around the world on
current topics such as mental health, healthy workplaces, young workers and planning for infectious disease outbreaks.

Young Workers Zone and Teaching Tools

It’s a known fact that young workers are vulnerable to
being injured on the job - they’re new to the working
world and can be unaware of the dangers, or their rights,
in their workplace. The Young Workers Zone microsite is
dedicated to providing occupational health and safety
resources and information to not only young workers, but
their parents, teachers, and employers as well. Page views
of this popular site increased 14% with 44,000 page
views.

44,000

page views

To complement the free resources found in the Young Workers Zone, CCOHS offers another online resource, Health and Safety Teaching Tools, which aims to help
teachers lay a foundation of workplace health and safety for students. The basic content of this program is available for free on the website, with the comprehensive
version available at a cost. With 104,678 views, Teaching Tools realized a 13% growth in usage.

* * * * * * * * *

In the upcoming fiscal year CCOHS plans to revamp the
Young Workers Zone microsite to address new workers,
as well as create an immersive educational experience
for young people that would provide them a basic level of
knowledge and understanding of the workplace and their
health and safety rights. The new “Zone” will incorporate
the more comprehensive fee-based version of the Health
and Safety Teaching Tools into the portal as a free public
service.

Healthy Minds at Work

At some point in our lives, most of us are likely to be
affected by a mental illness, whether it’s through a family
member, a friend, a colleague, or through personal
experience. And many people face these mental health
issues during their working years. In August 2015, the
Healthy Minds at Work microsite was given a makeover to
include more up to date statistical information as well as to
provide users with an immersive and user-friendly
experience. The site offers information on how to create a
healthy and supportive work environment, promote mental
health, and effectively handle mental health issues that
may exist. For a three week period starting in July 2015,
CCOHS ran a social marketing campaign to raise
awareness of, and model how workplaces could respond
effectively to mental health issues. The length of the
campaign was reduced from 10 weeks to three to comply
with the Federal election communications embargo.
However, during this period, daily traffic to the site
increased tenfold. This year the site had more than 30,000
page views. More communication assets such as videos,
and twitter cards, as well as a new mental health campaign
are being developed to keep this issue in the forefront.

30,143

page views

Flu and Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Most of our lives are a combination of work, family and
community involvement. An infectious disease outbreak or
pandemic would disrupt and affect all of these areas. The
Flu and Infectious Disease Outbreaks microsite provides
users with guidance, advice, and tools, needed to continue
business and organizational activity, and be prepared in
the event of an infectious disease outbreak. Activity on this
site has decreased over the years however any news of
new viruses (Zika) or outbreaks (Ebola) causes a spike in
activity. This year the site had 13,149 page views.

Advancing Healthy Workplaces

There is a strong connection between the health and
well-being of people and their work environments. When
people feel valued, respected, and satisfied in their jobs
and work in safe, healthy environments, they are more
likely to be more productive and committed to their work.
The Advancing Healthy Workplaces microsite provides
employees, employers and practitioners with easy to
find information, tools and resources such as articles,
posters, and research reports they may need to promote a
healthy and safe work environment. The site had 53,131
page views, representing 26% growth.

CanOSH

Years ago if you were looking for hazard alerts or young
worker programs from the various provinces or territories,
you had to search each website individually. The launch of
CanOSH 17 years ago put an end to all of that. The microsite
provides an all-encompassing access route to government
related occupational health and safety information, news,
hazard alerts and services across all jurisdictions in Canada.
The popularity of the tool speaks to the value of this onestop-
information source with close to 39,000 page views this
year.

Raising Awareness and Promoting Health and Safety

Posters

Over the years, the Centre has built a collection of 34
bilingual posters that organizations can use to help
promote health and safety in their workplace. From hot
button issues such as mental health, to hazards such as
slips, trips and falls, workplaces use these posters to
reinforce health and safety messages, techniques, and best
practices. In fact, more than 50,000 posters were
downloaded from our website this year in addition to the
tens of thousands of the Day of Mourning posters that
were reproduced by labour unions.

50,833

downloads

Not surprisingly, the most popular titles were those related
to WHMIS 2015 and GHS. While CCOHS will continue to
add new posters that address emerging workplace health
and safety issues, we are noticing that there is a shift emerging in the preferred formats of this information.
Poster popularity is giving way to our more compact Fast
Fact Cards and On Topic pieces that provide bite-sized
information and tips; demand for customization of these
materials is increasing.

Infographics

CCOHS also spreads awareness to a variety of different
audiences by sharing data in a more visually appealing
way through the use of infographics. Doubling the size of
the collection this year, CCOHS experimented with 6 new
topics including: New Worker Safety in Canada, Fatigue
and Work, Indoor Air Quality, Hazard Control, The Aging
Workforce in Canada, and CCOHS’ Forum 2016
Highlights. Overall, the infographics web page had 23,749
page views, however the highly popular Fatigue and Work
infographic garnered almost a third of the views. Each
infographic page provides users with a snapshot/lightbox
view and an explanation of what infographics are and their
intended purpose, encouraging users to share them
electronically. Another enhancement for users is they can
print the infographics in a larger size should they wish to
display the information as a poster.

23,749

page views

Podcasts [Health and Safety To Go!]

Since 2009, CCOHS has provided workers across Canada
with audio health and safety information through its
Health and Safety to Go! podcast program. The podcasts
allow CCOHS to connect with Canadians in a less
traditional format, thus expanding the Centre’s reach and
impact with more people across a larger landscape.
CCOHS’ podcasts are used on mobile devices such as
smart phones, tablets, and MP3 players. This year
CCOHS produced 22 new podcasts bringing the total
episode count to 170. We know that many workplaces,
educational institutions and organizations link to specific
episodes of interest which partly explains the 31% growth
in podcast listens (57,758 listens this year). Next year
CCOHS will be looking at ways to improve this free
service starting with a plan to retire and replace outdated
episodes with newer content, and place greater focus on
featuring partnerships for interview content.

57,758

listens

The Health and Safety Report

Workers, employers, and health and safety professionals
and enthusiasts alike stay current and informed with their
subscription to CCOHS’ largest communications channel,
the Health and Safety Report newsletter. This free monthly
e-newsletter delivers current workplace health and safety
news, information, advice and tips to 28,781 subscribers
from 183 countries – 75% being from Canada (the
database was cleansed resulting in the elimination of more
than 5,000 broken records from the previous year).

28,781

Subscribers

From

183 countries

75%

from Canada

Approximately 92% of subscribers share the newsletter
with others, resulting in an additional 705,360 monthly
reach. The annual readership survey provides a testament
to the quality and high
appreciation for this popular
newsletter. It routinely earns a
99+% overall satisfaction rating
with the content and format. The
value of the newsletter extends
beyond the individual subscriber as 98% said that the
newsletter provides value to
their organization, and 71%
of users indicated that they
use the information in the
newsletter to make current or
planned changes in their workplace that might improve
occupational health and safety.

Articles from the Health and Safety Report are a staple for
other publications, media outlets and organizations, who
repurpose them for their own use. Our informal tracking of
the 45 publicly shared reprints resulted in approximately a
million impressions of extended reach.

"...my go-to place for updates in
occupational health and safety to keep
me informed of any upcoming changes
in legislation or best practices."

"98% said the newsletter added value to their organization."

705,360

monthly reach

Supporting the Occupational Health and Safety Profession

Dick Martin Scholarship Award

Each year, CCOHS strives to support students in their
pursuit of higher education in occupational health and
safety with the Dick Martin Scholarship Award. This
annual, national award was started 14 years ago by
CCOHS’ Council of Governors to encourage interest in the
field of workplace health and safety. The scholarship is
offered to post-secondary students enrolled in a degree or
diploma granting occupational health and safety program
in Canada. Two scholarships of $3,000 are awarded each
year to a university and college student, and $500 is
awarded to each winner’s school. This year, the number of
applications was up 33% with 82 received.

2015-16 Scholarship Recipients

Left - CCOHS Council member Leslie Galway with scholarship recipient Harry Wiseman

Connecting with Canadians

As a leader in the advancement of occupational health and safety in Canada, CCOHS
continuously works to meet the needs of the changing world of work and increase
outreach, user population and impact on Canadian workplaces. It is imperative that
CCOHS have a presence, and engage audiences, across the country and in every
province and territory, to connect, listen,and learn about their issues and priorities.

Forum 2016 - Vancouver, BC

This year, CCOHS hosted a two-day tripartite, national
event, Forum 2016: The Changing World of Work,
that brought a wide spectrum of experts, employers,
workers, labour and government representatives together
in Vancouver, British Columbia, to learn about emerging
issues, share best practices, and brainstorm solutions.

The Forum featured expert speakers, panel
discussions, interactive events, and a
showcase of innovation and best practices.
The event offered participants a unique
opportunity to explore and understand the
health and safety challenges emerging
from changes in society, technologies, and
organizations of work. The Honourable
MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of
Employment, Workforce Development and
Labour delivered opening remarks.

One of the goals of the Forum was to achieve a balance
in delegates from both tripartite and geographical
perspectives. This year’s event had 146 delegates from
eleven provinces and territories, with fairly balanced
tripartite representation from labour (28.8%), employers
(31.5%), governments (36.3%) as well as students (3.4%).

A survey of the attendees revealed that 95%
found value in the forum and 93% would
attend a future event. Our focus will turn now
to sharing the outcomes from the delegate
interactive activities more widely, and planning
how to address the top issues and concerns
raised at the Forum.

The Honourable MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour

Engaging With Our Community

Connecting with Canadians through social media is one of the many ways CCOHS helps to promote a comprehensive
approach to workplace health and safety. Being able to actively engage with clients on a daily basis across many channels
helps keep CCOHS top of mind as the go to resource for tools, information, and advice on creating a healthy workplace. We
connect over five social media channels - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and You Tube – giving us the opportunity to
foster an online community while sharing information more widely with the world.

Twitter: The world today thrives on instant communication
from brands they trust. In 140 characters or less, CCOHS
engages audiences on what’s happening in the world of
workplace health and safety as well as at the Centre. We
share developments, ideas, new legislation and more
in real time. This year, CCOHS had 8,685 combined
followers on their English and French Twitter handles,
and produced 294 tweets resulting in 1,124 retweets from
followers. This high level of engagement delivered an
annual retweet audience of 3.4 million, reaching 14.5%
more followers than this time last year.

Facebook: CCOHS’ Facebook page is an easy way to share updates and
insider information about the Centre with fans, and allows CCOHS
to stay connected with workers across the world. The Facebook
page gained 1,835 new fans this year, reaching a total of 7,613 likes
across the English and French pages. Posting content 129 times,
CCOHS reached 335,324 fans, with the average post reach being
128 clicks and 61 shares and/or comments. CCOHS’ fan base grew
exponentially this year due in part by posting more frequently as well
as sharing image based posts which garner more engagement from
the fans. Also interesting to note, our most popular photo post shared
of the Day of Mourning on April 28, 2015, generated a reach of
48,736, well beyond the average reach of 2,599 per CCOHS post.

LinkedIn: Networking with working professionals, the
business community and other organizations interested
in workplace health and safety information and
resources, CCOHS added 1,638 new LinkedIn followers
this year (43% growth), for a total of 5,456 followers
across both its English and French LinkedIn pages.

YouTube: The Centre uses YouTube to share and
distribute videos produced by CCOHS as well as to
host videos for the Youth Video Contest. CCOHS has
produced eleven videos, the most popular of which is
the Lifting Objects at Work. The videos were viewed
20,070 times this year (up 14% from last year).
Moving forward, CCOHS
plans to produce a series
of 30 second videos with
concise, key messages to
support social marketing
campaigns on current
issues.

Google+: CCOHS increased usage of Google+ this year,
actively sharing CCOHS related images, resources,
tools and news to its followers. This year, CCOHS’
English and French pages had 52,051 new views and
89 new followers.

Klout Score: CCOHS actively monitors its Klout Score to track overall influence and performance across social media
channels over time. A Klout Score ranges from 1 to 100, and the higher the number, the more influential a person or
organization is – specifically, its ability to drive action and engagement by creating content that people want to share
and respond to. Specifically, Klout uses 400 signals from eight different networks that take into account the audience
reach, amplification probability, and network impact to determine the total sphere of influence..

In the News

Media

CCOHS continues to be a “go to” resource for trustworthy
health and safety content, perspective, advice, and
guidance. With our active media program, subject
specialists provide advice and interviews to satisfy
media requests. We maintain a high profile with regular
media releases and by seeding editorial content with
media outlets. This year the Centre recorded 576 media
sightings* (up 26.5% from last year).

These various media mentions represented an estimated
reach in excess of 203,022,077 (95% growth) impressions
in national and international news outlets such as the
National Post, CBCNews.ca, The Weather Network, Globe
and Mail, PLANT Magazine, COS Magazine, Canadian
Business Magazine, 680 News, Edmonton Journal,
Toronto Star, Huffington Post Canada, CBC Radio, the
Ottawa Citizen, and the New York Post to name a few.

203,022,077

estimated reach

* A media sighting is when a CCOHS subject specialist was quoted, the Centre was referenced as an information
source, or when our online fact sheets, articles or media releases were repurposed by other publications.

Reaching Out

Exhibiting and Speaking Engagements

Attending conferences as exhibitors and presenters are one of the many ways in which CCOHS works to create awareness
about current issues and the work we do, while establishing credibility with new and existing clientele.

This year, CCOHS attended, exhibited, or presented at events that supported employer, labour, governmental groups
and Indigenous Peoples. CCOHS’ strategic plan’s sector-specific focus helped us forge new relationships and potential
partnerships from our exhibits and presentations at mining, construction, oil and gas, healthcare and public health events.
This year, CCOHS participated in 45 conferences and events, as well as accepted 37 speaking engagements, achieving a
total conference reach of 33,271, an 11% increase over the previous year.

Next year, we will continue to serve and increase our
presence in every province and territory in Canada.
We will speak or exhibit across the country to extend
our regional and professional reach by participating in
industry-specific events focusing on mining, construction,
oil and gas, healthcare, public health, and Indigenous
populations.

Educating Workers

Having a well-developed health and safety program that includes an education and training component is not only essential for keeping people safe at work and preventing injuries, it is often a legislated requirement. CCOHS has built an extensive program of credible health and safety education and training resources to meet the needs of workplaces in Canada.

e-Learning and Publications

e-Learning

Preventing injuries and illness caused by work must be a
priority for everyone in the workplace. An important part
of prevention is equipping workers with basic knowledge
of their roles and responsibilities and ensuring they
understand and have the ability to identify hazards and
perform their job safely. Educating employees is a critical
step in injury prevention and key to the future success of
any organization. CCOHS endeavors to make health and
safety education affordable, and easy and convenient to
access, with its extensive program of 106 online courses
(e-courses) on a wide range of relevant topics.

CCOHS courses are created with assistance and advice
from outside technical experts when required, while the
tripartite external review of courses by representatives of
government, employers, and labour helps achieve balance,
accuracy and understanding by all parties in the workplace.
To help promote basic awareness of important health and
safety issues such as workplace violence and mental
health, CCOHS offers free awareness e-courses. These
courses provide users with an introduction to the issue at
hand and also to CCOHS’ online learning platform. In total,
uptake of e-courses totalled almost 190,000 seats. There
were 95,214 accesses to the free courses this year and
94,439 seats were purchased, with the WHMIS 2015
e-course proving to be, by far, the most popular title.

190,000

seats accessed

Most Popular Course

WHMIS 2015 for Workers

Publications

Whether workers are sitting at a desk or working remotely,
there are times when they need access to information at
their fingertips. But for those who need more information
than what’s offered on a fact sheet, or who don’t have
access to technology while out in the field, CCOHS has a
collection of publications and other documents in easy to
read print and electronic formats. The collection of 30
publications provides information that is practical,
authoritative and balanced. These popular health and
safety guides inform people of workplace hazards to
reduce risk and help prevent injury, and are designed for
use on-the-job as reference tools and information sources.
CCOHS is exploring alternative, mobile delivery formats to
meet the changing needs and expectations of workers.
This year, 6,605 publications were purchased.

6,605

purchased

CCOHS developed a comprehensive WHMIS 2015
Instructor’s Toolkit for trainers to use while
educating others about WHMIS 2015.
The toolkit, comprised of an
instructor’s guide, participants’
guide and PowerPoint slides, was
developed last year and released
in the spring of 2015. To
date, 383 toolkits and 836
participant workbooks have
been purchased, for a total
of 1,219 copies.

Partnering for Success

CCOHS has a legacy of collaborating with Canadian and international partners
alike to advance the health and safety of workers and promote the integration
of employee health and well-being into the workplace culture. Partnerships
allow CCOHS to provide Canadians with the best information from both
Canadian and international sources as well as share its own knowledge,
expertise, and perspective with the world.

We’re stronger together. By collaborating with others
we benefit from the knowledge, experience, expertise
and perspectives they have to offer, which enables
us to develop better solutions. Projects with leading
organizations in Canada such as the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research (CIHR), Health Canada and WorkSafeNB,
have expanded the quality and quantity of resources
and programs available to workers and employers
across the country. Working with international partners
as a Collaborating Centre of the International Labour
Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO),
and with the European Union, CCOHS has shared its
knowledge, expertise, and Canadian perspective with
the world and helped to advance health and safety in the
workplace on a global level. These partnerships have
also enabled CCOHS to provide Canadians with the best
information from international sources.

Leveraging Technology

WHMIS.org Website

With information about WHMIS spread across various
government websites, it was clear that a one-stop-shop
was needed to help employers and workers in Canada
navigate the complexities of adopting WHMIS
2015. Last year, CCOHS launched WHMIS.org,
a national website that provides a single
point of access to the most current
information about WHMIS 2015 from
all of the jurisdictions across Canada. Containing helpful tools and resources
for workers, employers, suppliers and
trainers, the website was a collaboration
between CCOHS and the Workplace
Hazardous Materials Bureau of Health
Canada, as well as each of the federal, provincial
and territorial occupational health and safety regulatory
jurisdictions across Canada. This year, the website had
almost 70,000 sessions, 78% of which were from Canada.
The top three provinces accessing the site were Ontario
(48%), Alberta (15%), and Quebec (10%).

As of April 2016, the following six jurisdictions: British
Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Northwest
Territories, Nunavut, and Quebec, had implemented
WHMIS 2015. The remaining jurisdictions are at different
stages in their legislative process.

69,542

sessions

New Brunswick Web Tool/App

In the previous year, CCOHS and WorkSafeNB partnered
to create the New Brunswick Web Tool/App, a bilingual
microsite and mobile app to help employers in the
construction industry find regulatory requirements
in one easy to find spot. The microsite, A
Guide to OSH Legislation, features 30
construction-related topics with links to
resources, including interpretations,
summaries, legislation, hazard alerts
and safety talks, all in an easy-to-read
format. The microsite was released in
the spring of 2015. In February 2016 an
additional 9 topics were added and it was
launched as stand-alone iOS and Android
apps. In this first partial year, and combining the
web and app data, there were 11,024 users viewing 41,172
pages/screens.

Through this opportunity, CCOHS is working with Ontario,
Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories to develop
comparable applications in those jurisdictions. Work is
expected to start in the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) PainPoint App

While a professional ergonomic assessment is considered
the most effective way to address work-related discomfort,
there’s also an app for that! CCOHS collaborated with
the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers
(OHCOW) to develop PainPoint – Prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) at Work, a free app that helps users
take action at preventing injuries. The app delivers a
very basic ergonomic assessment by running users
through a series of diagrams and questions to pinpoint
musculoskeletal pain, identify possible sources, and
discover practical solutions. The results are depicted on a
body map, with recommendations to address work-related
musculoskeletal hazards that could be a contributing
factor to the users’ discomfort. PainPoint was released in
October 2015 and is available for use on iOS, Android,
and Blackberry devices.

WorkSafe Saskatchewan “Five Pillars” Health and Safety Web Tool

CCOHS and WorkSafe Saskatchewan partnered this year
to create an online portal to act as a plain-language guide
to the “Five Pillars” of a sound health and safety program:
job hazard analysis, inspections, investigations, practices
and procedures, and training. Each of these pillars will
have a summary document, and links to legislation,
education, training, and other resources such as form and
fact sheets. The web tool is under development, and is set
to launch in the Fall of 2016.

Preparing for Change

Health Canada and WHMIS 2015 Promotional Campaign

CCOHS and Health Canada partnered to develop free
resource materials to prepare, inform and support
workplaces during the transition to WHMIS 2015, and
equip employers and employees with the necessary
information needed to work safely. A two-tiered campaign
to promote these important free resources was deployed
in November 2015, and was targeted to small business
owners. A second tier is currently scheduled for July 2016
targeting chemical suppliers and handlers.

The small business campaign leveraged a combination
of CCOHS communication channels (newsletters and
social media) and external business-focused properties
including coverage in The Canadian Business Journal,
and content placement in newsletters in Canadian
Chambers of Commerce, with a nation-wide reach of over
70,000 members, across 20,000 businesses in more than
135 communities.

Free WHMIS 2015 For Workers e-Course

To help educate workers about the upcoming changes
to WHMIS 2015, CCOHS partnered with the Workplace
Hazardous Materials Bureau of Health Canada in 2014 to
develop a free e-course: WHMIS After GHS For Workers.

The course was funded by Health Canada and was offered
free of charge to the first 100,000 participants, for up to
one year. With the anticipation of the Hazardous Products
Regulation coming into force in February 2015, there was
an increased interest in the course. As a result, CCOHS
and Health Canada extended the free offer until March 31,
2016.

In addition to the free course, organizations that wanted
to track their employees’ course usage paid $10 per seat
to access the e-course, and had the capability of running
usage reports on CCOHS’ Learning Management System.

Since the launch in 2015, 207,000 people have registered
for this course. This year, a total of 173,582 individuals
had registered for the free e-course, and 23,623 multiaccount
user courses were sold. The top three provinces accessing the e-courses were Ontario, Alberta, and British
Columbia.

173,582

individual registrants

23,623

multi-user account seats sold

Addressing Current Issues

Government of Canada Mental Health Social Marketing Campaign

In 2015, CCOHS applied for national web advertising
fund monies, which are allotted to federal government
departments seeking to deliver national campaigns that
support government-wide initiatives. CCOHS was accepted
as a co-advertiser and worked with the Government of
Canada to deliver the Workplace Mental Health Campaign
2015.

CCOHS worked in partnership with the Advertising
Communications and Partnerships Directorate (ACPD) to
co-brand these paid social placements with both CCOHS
and Government of Canada wordmarks. This advertising
partnership demonstrated commitment and partnership to
help increase awareness and help reduce workplace and
community stigma regarding attitudes and behaviours
toward people living and working with mental health issues..

The campaign provided a prime opportunity to inform
workplaces of the tools available from CCOHS to help
increase their understanding and recognition of mental
health issues at work, develop and implement approaches
to promote mental health at work, and find quality
resources and tools on a range of related topics.

The campaign leveraged a media mix of search engine
marketing (Google AdWords) and promoted social
content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The campaign
launched July 15, 2016 and was embargoed as of August
2, 2015 as a result of the Federal election. During the two
weeks of the campaign, daily traffic to the Healthy Minds at
Work portal increased tenfold.

Next year, CCOHS hopes to continue the promotion of
workplace mental health with a social media campaign
during Mental Health Week and beyond.

Guarding Minds at Work

Mental health disorders place a heavy burden on the
health and productivity in workplaces across Canada.
The Guarding Minds @ Work website is a unique and
free comprehensive set of resources from the Centre
for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction,
designed to protect and promote psychological health
and safety in the workplace. It allows employers to assess
and address the 13 psychosocial factors known to have
a powerful impact on organizational health, the health of
individual employees, and the financial bottom line.

Guarding Minds @ Work was developed by experienced
research-practitioners from the Centre for Applied Research
in Mental Health and Addiction, funded by Great-West Life,
and is operationally supported and maintained by CCOHS.

This year, the Guarding Minds @ Work website was updated
to provide clearer language, improved functionality, and
greater consistency with current and emerging regulatory
and legal standards and practices pertaining to workplace
psychological health and safety. In addition, five new
questions were added to the Guarding Minds @ Work
Survey.

Health Canada Inspectors e-Courses

Health Canada and CCOHS worked together to develop
e-course modules for inspectors who will be enforcing
the Hazardous Products Act and Hazardous Products
Regulations. This year, four new courses were released.

CIHR Gender, Work and Health Chair Program

CCOHS is the official Knowledge Translation (KT) Partner of
the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) - Gender,
Work and Health Chair Research Program, responsible
for advancing the program’s objective of translating
research into gender- and sex-sensitive policies, practices,
commercialization and other areas of impact that can
preserve and improve the health of workers in Canada. In
February 2016 CCOHS developed a prototype for a Gender,
Work and Health microsite that is expected to go live in
the fall of 2016. The site will serve as a single access point
to the latest informational materials, policies, tools and
research related to addressing gender in workplace health
and safety.

National Stage

Focus on Safety [National Youth Video Contest]

Instilling a culture of safety has to start at a young age, and
who better to deliver important messages to youth than
youth? CCOHS, along with each province and territory,
challenged high school students across the
country to use their creativity to
produce an original video that
illustrates the importance of
workplace health and safety. The
Focus on Safety National Youth
Video Contest (formerly It’s
Your Job Video Contest)
gave contestants and their
schools a chance to win
cash prizes, provincial/
territorial and national
recognition, and national entrants
were also eligible to win the Fan Favourite
award. This year, Shirley Hickman, Executive Director of
Threads of Life, returned as a contest judge and joining her
on the panel were Gareth Jones, Acting PCEO of CCOHS,
and Jim Hopkins, President of the Canadian Society of
Safety Engineering (CSSE). The calibre of the content and
creativity of the video was impressive and CCOHS was
determined to ensure they were viewed by as many
people as possible. To that end, CCOHS developed and
promoted a Film Fest kit to other organizations to
encourage video watch events across the country during
NAOSH Week.

North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week

Every year, for one week, health and safety takes centre
stage as people across the continent come together
and resolve to make safety a habit. North American
Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week is an
annual initiative led by a partnership of key national
organizations: CCOHS, the Canadian Society of
Safety Engineering (CSSE), Employment and Social
Development Canada’s Labour Program, and Threads
of Life. As a national partner, CCOHS updates and
maintains the NAOSH Week web site, and through its
communications channels, promotes awareness of
safety in addition to the week and related events. CCOHS
attended and spoke at the 2015 NAOSH Week’s national
launch event in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Other Projects and Partnerships

Canada School of Public Service

In 2014, CCOHS and the Canada School of Public Service
partnered to provide online health and safety training
courses to federal public servants. The partnership
provided federal public servants listed under Schedules 1,
IV or V of the Financial Administration Act in Canada with
access to a wide variety of credible and relevant online
health and safety courses. The partnership is ongoing
with the courses offered by CCOHS added to the School’s
existing suite of online products. They are a cost-effective
way to meet the health and safety training needs of
organizations and federal employees.

CSA Group Standards

CCOHS and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
have had a long standing relationship, partnering on
a number of initiatives over the years. CCOHS began
offering CSA Group Standards in 2014, and to date, over
180 CSA Group Standards have been purchased through
the CCOHS website (20% increase over last year). This
year, twelve new bilingual standards were added to keep
the collection current and relevant for users.

CAREX Canada

CAREX Canada is the country’s leading source of
evidence on Canadians’ exposures to workplace and
environmental carcinogens, to support the effort to raise
awareness of radon exposure. This year, CCOHS was
invited to be a part of the organization’s CAREX Canada
Knowledge Translation Advisory Committee. Comprised
of members from across the country, the Committee
helps guide their knowledge translation strategy and
supports CAREX’ efforts to put their resources and tools
into action for cancer prevention in Canada. Last fall,
CCOHS collaborated with CAREX on an article about
radon safety, and will continue to provide opportunities to
share findings and advice from CAREX that can prevent
work-related cancers.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada

To help the Transportation Safety Board of Canada
improve their workplace health and safety programs,
CCOHS helped them develop a Respiratory Protection
Program and Confined Space Entry Program in 2014-15.
This year, the project was completed and CCOHS will
continue to develop health and a safety programs for the
Transportation Safety Board of Canada next year.

Managing Health and Safety

There are many different components that can contribute to creating a healthy
and safe work environment. CCOHS has created products and services to help
meet the unique needs of various occupations and workplaces, whether it is to
help them know their legislative requirements or write a safety data sheet.

Tools for Managing Workplace Health and Safety

CANWrite™ – (M)SDS Authoring Software

In Canada, manufacturers and suppliers must provide
(material) safety data sheets with information to help
employers and workers understand product hazards as
well as how to work safely with them. CCOHS offers an
online authoring tool, CANWrite™ which allows suppliers
and manufacturers of chemical products to author
(material) safety data sheets in English, French, and
Spanish. In August 2015, CCOHS implemented changes
to the service which allowed authors to write a single
safety data sheet to comply with the Canadian Hazardous
Products Act Regulations (WHMIS 2015) and the U.S.
Hazard Communication Standard (HCS 2012). CCOHS
saw a 110% increase in clients from last year, and 63%
of clients upgraded to this new version.

Also new this year, to assist small businesses author
WHMIS 2015 compliant safety data sheets, CCOHS
developed a free, downloadable template that provides
the minimum information elements for a safety data sheet
as required by Schedule 1 of the Hazardous Products
Regulations (HPR) (WHMIS 2015). The template is
available in both standard and accessible formats in
English and French.

MSDS Management Service

While authoring safety data sheets can be a challenge for
some workplaces, managing the thousands of hazardous
chemicals used in workplaces every day can certainly add
to those challenges. CCOHS’ MSDS Management Service
(MMS) is an online service that puts safety data sheets in
one convenient location for users, and provides support
and assistance to employers, helping ensure they comply
with the legislation in their jurisdiction.

This year, upgrades were added to the service to enhance
the user experience and to help support organizations
as they transitioned to WHMIS 2015. Amongst the many
upgrades made to the service, the most notable ones
included: adding the option of batch printing to allow
clients to print out their own data sheets; access to
historical archives of product’s material safety data sheets;
and a “Date Checked by CCOHS” notice was added to the
service to show when CCOHS has verified that it is the
newest one available. Further enhancements planned for
next year include developing an advanced labelling tool, as well as enabling clients to toggle between the WHMIS 1988
and WHMIS 2015 versions of their data sheets.

The MMS service gained 30 new clients this year (a 7%
increase from last year) bringing the total number of clients
up to 170 across Canada. Next year, CCOHS plans to
increase the reach of the MMS service by building new
partnerships with sector-specific associations across
Canada.

Canadian enviroOSH Legislation plus Standards Service

Navigating Canadian occupational health and safety
legislation across jurisdictions can be tricky. To help make
it easier for organizations and workers to access legislation
and referenced standards to identify and understand their
rights and responsibilities under the law, CCOHS offers an
online service called the Canadian enviroOSH Legislation
plus Standards. This year, CCOHS’ Legislation Innovation
Team focused its efforts on identifying ways to strengthen
and grow the service. To enhance the user experience,
updates will be made next year to improve the search
functionality of the tool, create custom webpages to allow
clients to see their favourite documents, and introduce a
variable subscription period to expand the market. CCOHS
will also begin work next year on utilizing the service to
develop new products such as legislative interpretative
content and topic-based content. Currently the service has
315 clients.

CHEMINFO

To help workers migrate the complexities of workplace
chemicals, CCOHS experts developed CHEMINFO – an
internationally recognized resource containing critical safety
information for over 1,800 workplace chemicals. The database
provides essential health and safety information about
chemicals to control workplace exposures and prevent
accidents, and includes scientifically supported WHMIS
1988 regulatory classifications. In addition, there are two
CHEMINFO spin-offs: Chemical Profiles (listed under the
OSH Answers Fact Sheets) and the WHMIS 1988
Classification Database which is offered as a public
service. CHEMINFO clients viewed over 67,582 records
online this year.

67,582

records viewed

Investing for Tomorrow

To provide the level of service our clients deserve, CCOHS is working to replace
outdated software and systems with more modern, effective technological solutions.
This modernization also extended to the government pay system, which is expected
to improve efficiencies. Last year, the Centre began its adoption of Acumatica, a new
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system which allows CCOHS to integrate business
management applications such as financials, customer relationship management (CRM),
and client purchase management made online, into one program. Integrating this type of
system at CCOHS will result in significant improvements in the Centre’s ability to deliver
fast and effective support for clients. In addition it will allow CCOHS to collect more
comprehensive information about users and purchases for use in strategic planning.
The new CRM phase of the project was launched on March 10, 2016. The last phase of
the project, implementing the financial management through the ERP,
is targeted to launch in April 2016.

Our Values in Action

Working people spend a good part of their life at work. It only stands to reason then that organizations can play a key role in impacting the health and well-being of their employees. From providing a safe and healthy physical work environment to
supporting healthy lifestyles, encouraging personal development, and promoting active participation to help improve health and well-being at work, everyone can benefit from a healthy workplace. As Canada’s national workplace health and safety resource, CCOHS strives to “walk the talk” by providing an engaging, productive work environment that is not only healthy and safe, but in which all can thrive.

Employee Engagement

Fostering employee engagement is important at CCOHS. A few years ago, CCOHS introduced bi-monthly Town Hall meetings as a way for employees to interact with the executive team, ask questions, share ideas, and discuss the things that matter to them the most and to help
invoke positive changes to the organization.

Mental Health at CCOHS

A mentally healthy workplace is important to CCOHS, and we strive to provide an environment in which people feel protected from psychological harm. This year, CCOHS continued to participate in the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace’ Case Study Project and encouraged employees to complete PHASE (Psychological Health Awareness Survey
for Employees) an online survey used to gather feedback on CCOHS’ organizational efforts to create a mentally healthy workplace. While the survey was hosted in the later part of the fiscal year, the Mental Health @ Work Team will be hosting small, informal discussion groups about
the survey’s outcomes with all staff in the spring of 2016.

CCOHS’ Healthy Workplace

CCOHS’ Healthy Workplace Team is comprised
of employees and managers, and organizes
regular activities to help promote healthy
habits, team building, community involvement,
and encourages positive engagement among
the staff. From hosting healthy workplace
challenges, volunteer days and lunchtime
yoga sessions, the team strives to support
and promote active participation by all to help
improve health and well-being at work.

Financial Review

Management Responsibility for Financial Statements

Statement of Management Responsibility Including Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Responsibility for the integrity and objectivity of the accompanying financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2016, and all information contained in these statements rests with the management of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (“CCOHS” or the “Centre”). These financial statements have been prepared by management in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards.

Management is responsible for the integrity and objectivity of the information in these financial statements. Some of the information in the financial statements is based on management’s best estimates and judgment, and gives due consideration to materiality. To fulfill its accounting and reporting responsibilities, management maintains a set of accounts that provides a centralized record of the Centre’s financial transactions. Financial information submitted in the preparation of the Public Accounts of Canada, and included in CCOHS’ Departmental Performance Report, is consistent with these financial statements.

An Audit Committee appointed by the Council of Governors of CCOHS has reviewed these statements with management and the auditors, and has reported to the Council of Governors. The Council of Governors has approved the financial statements.

Management is also responsible for maintaining an effective system of internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance that financial information is reliable, that assets are safeguarded and that transactions are properly authorized and recorded in accordance with the Financial Administration Act and other applicable legislation, regulations, authorities and policies.

Management seeks to ensure the objectivity and integrity of data in its financial statements through careful selection, training, and development of qualified staff; through organizational arrangements that provide appropriate divisions of responsibility; through communication programs aimed at ensuring that regulations, policies, standards, and managerial authorities are understood throughout CCOHS and through conducting an annual risk-based assessment of the effectiveness of the system of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR).

An assessment for the year ended March 31, 2016 was completed in accordance with the Treasury Board’s Policy on Internal Control and the results and action plans are summarized in the annex.

The system of ICFR is designed to mitigate risks to a reasonable level based on an on-going process to identify key risks, to assess effectiveness of associated key controls, and to make any necessary adjustments.

CCOHS will be subject to periodic Core Control Audits performed by the Office of the Comptroller General and will use the results of such audits to adhere to the Treasury Board Policy on Internal Control.

In the interim, CCOHS has undertaken a risk-based assessment of the system of ICFR for the year ended March 31, 2016, in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Internal Control, and the results and action plan are summarized in the annex. The annex is available on CCOHS’ website at the following location: http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports/html

Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton LLP, the independent auditors for CCOHS, have expressed an opinion on the fair presentation of the financial statements of CCOHS which does not include an audit opinion on the annual assessment of the effectiveness of CCOHS’ internal controls over financial reporting.

Independent Auditor's Report

To the Council of Governors of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety and the Minister of Labour

We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, which comprise the statement of financial position as at March 31 2016, and the statement of operations and net financial position, statement of change in net debt and statement of cash flow for the year then ended, and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.

Management’s Responsibility for the Financial Statements

Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards, and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

Auditor's Responsibility

Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing standards. Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the entity’s preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity’s internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion.

Opinion

In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety as at March 31, 2016, and the results of its operations, changes in its net debt, and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards.

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the year ended March 31, 2016 (in dollars)

Authority and Objectives

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) was established in 1978 under the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Act and is a departmental corporation named in Schedule II to the Financial Administration Act. The objectives of CCOHS are to promote the right of Canadians to a healthy and safe working environment and to enhance the physical and mental health of workers. CCOHS' operating expenditures are funded in part by its operating revenue and by a budgetary lapsing appropriation.

CCOHS has one program activity for reporting purposes, in addition to internal services. The activity is occupational health and safety information development, delivery services and tripartite collaboration.

The goal of this program is to provide free information on occupational health and safety to support Canadians in their efforts to improve workplace safety and health. Citizens are provided information through a free and impartial personalized service via telephone, e-mail, person-to-person, fax or mail. Alternatively, they can independently access a broad range of electronic and print resources developed to support safety and health information needs of Canadians. This may include cost recovery products and services and is supported financially by contributions from various stakeholders.

Through health and safety information development, CCOHS collects, processes, analyzes, evaluates, creates and publishes authoritative information resources on occupational health and safety for the benefit of all working Canadians. This information is used for education and training, research, policy development, development of best practices, improvement of health and safety programs, achieving compliance, and for personal use. When the product or service provided by CCOHS is to identifiable external recipients with benefits beyond those enjoyed by the general taxpayer, a fee is charged.

CCOHS promotes and facilitates consultation and cooperation among federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions and participation by labour, management and other stakeholders in the establishment and maintenance of high standards and occupational health and safety initiatives for the Canadian context. The sharing of resources results in the coordinated and mutually beneficial development of unique programs, products and services. Collaborative projects are usually supported with a combination of financial and non-financial contributions to the programs by partners and stakeholders and result in advancement of the health and safety initiatives.

Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Material Services; Acquisition Services; and Travel and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.

Significant Accounting Policies

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards. Significant accounting policies are as follows:

Parliamentary Authorities

CCOHS is financed in part by the Government of Canada through Parliamentary authorities. Financial reporting of authorities provided to CCOHS do not parallel financial reporting according to generally accepted accounting principles since authorities are primarily based on cash flow requirements. Consequently, items recognized in the statement of operations and net financial position and the statement of financial position are not necessarily the same as those provided through authorities from Parliament. Note 4 provides a high-level reconciliation between the bases of reporting.

Liquidity risk is the risk that the Centre will encounter difficulty in meeting its obligations associated with financial liabilities. The entity's objective for managing liquidity risk is to manage operations and cash expenditures within the appropriation authorized by Parliament or allotment limits approved by the Treasury Board.

The entity's risk exposure and its objectives, policies and processes to manage and measure this risk did not change significantly from the prior year.

Net Cash Provided by Government

CCOHS operates within the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). The CRF is administered by the Receiver General for Canada. All cash received by CCOHS is deposited to the CRF and all cash disbursements made by CCOHS are paid from the CRF. The net cash provided by Government is the difference between all cash receipts and all cash disbursements, including transactions between departments of the Government.

Amounts due from or to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) are the result of timing differences at year-end between when a transaction affects authorities and when it is processed through the CRF. Amounts due from the CRF represents the net amount of cash that CCOHS is entitled to draw from the CRF, without further authorities, in order to discharge its liabilities. This amount is not considered to be a financial instrument.

Revenues

Revenues are accounted for in the period in which the underlying transaction or event occurred that gave rise to the revenues. Revenues for subscriptions of Internet based products are recognized over the term of the subscription.

Subscriptions are based upon the right to use the information for a specified period. Information may be updated during the subscription period.

Cash that has been received but not yet earned is recorded as deferred revenue. The deferred revenue represents cash received in advance of initial and ongoing product delivery, services or granting of access to the website.

Expenses

Expenses are recorded on the accrual basis.

Vacation pay and compensatory leave are accrued as the benefits earned by employees under their respective terms of employment.

Services provided without charge by other government departments for accommodation and the employer's contribution to the health and dental insurance plans are recorded as operating expenses at their estimated cost. A corresponding amount is reported as government funding.

Employee Future Benefits

Pension benefits: All eligible employees participate in the Public Service Pension Plan, a multi-employer plan administered by the Government of Canada. CCOHS' contributions are currently based on a multiple of an employee's required contributions and may change over time depending on the experience of the Plan. CCOHS' contributions to the Plan are charged to expenses in the year in which the services are rendered and represent its total obligation to the Plan. Current legislation does not require CCOHS to make contributions for any actuarial deficiencies of the Plan.

Severance benefits: Employees are entitled to severance benefits under labour contracts or conditions of employment. These benefits were accrued as employees render the services necessary to earn them and are estimated based on employees' salaries, duration of service and age. Entitlements stopped accruing on April 1, 2011. The remaining balance will be paid upon termination.

Accumulated sick leave: Employees are entitled to sick leave benefits that accumulate but do not vest. Therefore no amount has been recorded in the financial statements.

Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable are stated at amounts expected to be ultimately realized. A provision is made for receivables from external parties where recovery is considered uncertain.

Credit risk is the risk that one party to a financial instrument will cause a financial loss for the other party by failing to discharge an obligation. The entity is not exposed to significant credit risk. The entity provides services to other government departments and agencies and to external parties in the normal course of business. Accounts receivable are due on demand. The maximum exposure the entity has to credit is risk equal to the carrying value of its accounts receivables.

Contingent Liabilities

Contingent liabilities are potential liabilities that may become actual liabilities when one or more future events occur or fail to occur. To the extent that the future event is likely to occur or fail to occur, and a reasonable estimate of the loss can be made, an estimated liability is accrued and an expense recorded. If the likelihood is not determinable or an amount cannot be reasonably estimated, the contingency is disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.

Foreign Currency Transactions

Transactions involving foreign currencies are translated into Canadian dollar equivalents using rates of exchange in effect at the time of those transactions. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated using the rate of exchange in effect at year end. Gains and losses resulting from foreign currency transactions are included in the statement of operations and net financial position according to the activities to which they relate.

Inventories for Resale

Inventories for resale are valued at the lower of cost and net realizable value. Inventories for resale are primarily print materials held for resale.

Tangible Capital Assets

All tangible capital assets having an initial cost of $5,000 or more are recorded at the acquisition cost. Tangible capital assets are amortized over their estimated useful life on a straight-line basis, as follows:

Asset Class

Amortization Period

Computer equipment

5 - 10 years

Furniture and equipment

5 - 10 years

Software

1-5 years

Leasehold improvements

lesser of the remaining term of the lease/
or useful life of the improvement

Measurement Uncertainty

The preparation of these financial statements are in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards and requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses reported in the financial statements. At the time of preparation of these statements, management believes the estimates and assumptions to be reasonable. The liability for employee future benefits and the estimated useful life of tangible capital assets are the most significant items where estimates are used. Actual results could significantly differ from those estimated. Management's estimates are reviewed periodically and, as adjustments become necessary, they are recorded in the financial statements in the year they become known.

Net Debt

The net debt is calculated as the difference between liabilities and financial assets. Employee severance benefits and vacation pay obligations represent the most significant components of net debt as these obligations are paid from future Parliamentary authorities.

Parliamentary Authorities

CCOHS receives its funding through annual Parliamentary authorities and external revenues. Items recognized in the Statement of Operations and Net Financial Position and the Statement Financial Position in one year may be funded through Parliamentary authorities in prior, current or future years. Accordingly, CCOHS has different net results of operations for the year on a government funding basis than on an accrual accounting basis. These differences are reconciled as follows:

Reconciliation of net cost of operations to current year authorities used:

2016

2015

$

$

Net cost of operations before Government funding

5,404,153

5,676,234

Adjustments for items affecting net cost of operation but not affecting authorities:

Amortization of tangible capital assets (Note 6)

(61,151)

(33,646)

Services provided without charge from other Government departments

(1,236,722)

(1,197,545)

Decrease in employee severance benefits

88,446

80,286

Increase in vacation pay and compensatory leave

(29,544)

(12,249)

Bad debts

(6,187)

—

Total items affecting net cost of operation but not affecting authorities

(1,232,784)

(1,163,154)

Adjustments for items not affecting net cost of operations but affecting authorities:

Total items not affecting net cost of operations but affecting authorities

331,250

172,857

Current year authorities used

4,502,619

4,685,937

Authorities provided and used:

2016

2015

$

$

Employment and Social Development Canada – Vote 25

3,969,600

3,978,250

Employment and Social Development Canada – statutory

1,045,780

1,052,918

Employment and Social Development Canada – Vote 15

—

1,350

Employment and Social Development Canada – Vote 25A

198,913

407,659

Frozen allotment

(13,000)

(10,000)

Revenue Carryforward from 2014-15

148,671

—

Treasury Board – Vote 30 – Paylist Expenditures

429,507

—

Current year authorities provided

5,779,471

5,430,177

Less:

Lapsed authorities – operating

—

(744,240)

Current year authorities used

5,779,471

4,685,937

Revenues

2016

2015

$

$

General Health and Safety Products and Services

1,672,132

1,835,146

Chemical Products and Services

769,032

522,757

Training and Education

2,309,133

1,422,238

Inquiries Contributions

414,000

464,000

Communications

288,485

122,355

Other Income

54,316

40,230

5,507,098

4,406,726

Tangible Capital Assets

Cost

Opening Balance

Acquisitions

Disposals and Writeoffs

Closing Balance

$

$

$

$

Computer equipment

676,180

43,712

(44,438)

675,454

Furniture and equipment

296,663

—

(100,118)

196,545

Software

254,846

177,414

(4,265)

427,995

Leasehold improvements

19,875

—

(5,775)

14,100

1,247,564

221,126

(154,596)

1,314,094

Accumulated Amortization

Opening Balance

Amortization

Disposals and Writeoffs

Closing Balance

Net Book Value 2016

Net Book Value 2015

$

$

$

$

$

$

Computer equipment

474,363

47,532

53,922

467,973

207,481

201,818

Furniture and equipment

274,300

5,915

95,822

184,393

12,152

22,363

Software

162,078

7,704

(921)

170,703

257,292

92,769

Leasehold improvements

19,875

—

5,775

14,100

—

-

930,616

61,151

154,598

837,169

476,925

316,950

Amortization expense for the year ended March 31, 2016 is $61,151 (2015-$ 33,646). The decrease from prior year is due to the change in the capitalization policy discussed in Note 2.

Accounts Receivable

he following table presents details of accounts receivable from:

2016

2015

$

$

External parties

395,929

424,662

Other Federal government departments and agencies

129,122

31,102

525,051

455,764

Allowance for doubtful accounts on receivables from external parties

(12,000)

(6,449)

513,051

449,315

Accounts Payable and Accrued Liabilities

The accounts payable and accrued liabilities are measured at cost, all of which are due within the next 12 months.
The following table presents details of accounts payable and accrued liabilities:

2016

2015

$

$

External parties

335,835

328,709

Payroll

375,334

334,253

Other Federal government departments and agencies

37,811

58,669

748,980

721,631

Deferred revenue

Donations

CCOHS, by virtue of subsection 6(3) of its Act, may acquire money or other property by gift or otherwise and expend or dispose of those donations subject to their terms, if any. CCOHS received donations in 2016 totaling $2,250 (2015- $Nil). The balance at March 31, 2016 is $113,152 (2015 - $110,902).

Employee Future Benefits

Pension benefits

CCOHS employees participate in the Public Service Pension Plan, which is sponsored and administered by the Government of Canada. Pension benefits accrue up to a maximum period of 35 years at a rate of 2 percent per year of pensionable service, times the average of the best five consecutive years of earnings. The benefits are integrated with Canada/Quebec Pension Plans benefits and they are indexed to inflation.

Both the employees and CCOHS contribute to the cost of the Plan. The 2016 expense amounts to $720,856 (2015 - $719,776), which represents approximately 1.4 (2015- 1.4) times the contributions by employees.

CCOHS' responsibility with regard to the Plan is limited to its contributions. Actuarial surpluses or deficiencies are recognized in the financial statements of the Government of Canada, as the Plan's sponsor.

Employee severance benefits

CCOHS provides severance benefits to its employees based on eligibility, years of service and final salary which provides for one week of salary per year of service up to 30 years. These severance benefits are not pre-funded. Benefits will be paid from future authorities. Information about the severance benefits, measured as at March 31, is as follows:

As part of the collective agreement negotiations and changes to conditions of employment for other employees, the accumulation of severance benefits under the employee severance pay program ceased for these employees commencing in 2012. Employees subject to these changes have been given the option to be immediately paid the full or partial value of benefits earned to date or collect the full or remaining value of benefits on termination from CCOHS. These changes have been reflected in the calculation of the outstanding severance benefit obligation.

2016

2015

$

$

Accrued benefit obligation, beginning of year

1,063,934

1,144,220

Expense for the year

51,627

89,831

Benefits paid during the year

(140,073)

(170,117)

Accrued benefit obligation, end of year

975,488

1,063,934

Related Party Transactions

CCOHS is related as a result of common ownership to all Government departments, agencies, and Crown Corporations. CCOHS enters into transactions with these entities in the normal course of business and on normal trade terms. During the year, CCOHS received common services which were obtained without charge from other Government departments as disclosed below.

Services Provided Without Charge by other government departments

During the year, CCOHS received services without charge from certain common service organizations, related to accommodation and the employer's contribution to the health and dental insurance plans. These services provided without charge have been recorded in the Statement of Operations and Net Financial Position as follows:

2016

2015

$

$

Employer's contribution to health and dental insurance plans

559,785

520,608

Accommodation

676,937

676,937

Total

1,236,722

1,197,545

The Government has centralized some of its administrative activities for efficiency and cost-effectiveness purposes so that one department performs these on behalf of all without charge. The costs of these services, which include payroll and cheque issuance services provided by Public Works and Government Services Canada are not included in CCOHS' Statement of Operations and Net Financial Position.

Other Transactions With Related Parties

2016

2015

$

$

Accounts receivable from other government departments and agencies

129,122

31,102

Accounts payable to other government departments and agencies

37,811

58,669

Expenses – Other Government departments and agencies

175,306

188,915

Revenues – Other Government departments and agencies

966,943

538,560

Segmented Information

Presentation by segment is based on CCOHS' program activity architecture. The presentation by segment is based on the same accounting policies as described in summary of significant accounting policies in note 2. The following table presents the expenses incurred and revenues generated for the main program activities, by major object of expense and by major type of revenues. The segment results for the year are as follows:

Internal Services

Health and Safety

2016

2015

$

$

$

$

Salaries and employee benefits

2,866,564

5,254,685

8,121,249

7,950,978

Professional and Special Services

233,368

1,203,797

1,437,165

878,571

Accommodation

219,769

457,168

676,937

676,937

Transportation and communications

150,886

112,515

263,401

211,275

Information

38,403

43,275

81,678

71,590

Purchased repair and upkeep

39,336

90,547

129,883

88,476

Utilities, materials and supplies

25,813

73,918

99,731

149,983

Rental

33,769

18,181

51,950

28,074

Other expenditures

-

49,257

49,257

27,076

Total Expenses

3,607,908

7,303,343

10,911,251

10,082,960

Revenues

-

-

5,507,098

4,406,726

Cost from continuing operations

5,404,153

5,676,234

Transfer of Transition Payments for Implementing Salary Payments in Arrears

The Government of Canada implemented salary payments in arrears in 2014-15. As a result, a one-time payment was issued to employees and will be recovered from the government in the future. The transition to salary payments in arrears forms part of the transformation initiative that replaces the pay system and also streamlines and modernizes the pay process. This change to the pay system had no impact on the expenses of the Department. Prior to year-end, the transition payments for implementing salary payments in arrears were transferred to a central account administered by Public Works and Government Services Canada, who is responsible for the administration of the Government pay system.

Comparative Figures

Certain comparative figures have been reclassified to conform with the presentation adopted in the current year.